


where the herons no longer sing

by Rethira



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 12:06:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/698067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She grants his wish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	where the herons no longer sing

**Author's Note:**

> written for Raphi for the prompt "Bad end AU for your choice of anything."
> 
> I chose FE10.

The end comes with silence.

Not complete silence - there are still birds to sing and wind to blow and animals to graze. But all the laguz are stopped, and all the beorc are too. They are made as stone, and so they shall be kept, until Lady Ashera decides to remove them.

And yet there are still people. They come quietly as well, all of them, marching to the Tower. Ashera does not see them, but Sephiran does. He sees judgement in their eyes, but acceptance as well. A small bird flies with them; it joins Ashera in her chambers, and sings a sad, sweet song.

Zelgius joins the others. There are familiar faces and not - Micaiah is amongst them, somewhere, and she is... she is full of sorrow.

"I do not blame you," she says, on one of the days Sephiran comes down from the Tower. "I do not blame you for what you have done, but I do not forgive you for it either."

Eventually, the Branded leave, Micaiah with them. The bird, Yune, stays. Ashera remains in her chambers, with the bird, and leaves Sephiran to...

Ha. She leaves him to do as he wishes. She does not care.

Sephiran leaves the Tower almost a year after he entered it, and he and Zelgius head towards Serenes, where the herons no longer sing. They make a home there, for as much as it's worth, and in time, others appear. Most are from the desert, although now they can live freely, so they do. They live on the forest borders, some of them, but most are fleeting travellers, venturing forth for supplies before heading back to the only home they have.

They don't invite either of them to join them. Why should they? Sephiran is a relic of the past, a memory best forgotten, and Zelgius is Sephiran's.

There is one who comes. He is small, still young, but he is bitter and he is angry, so, so angry - Sephiran half thinks that perhaps he will make Ashera _see_ \- but he has no words for either of them. He glares at them whenever they meet, which is thankfully infrequent, but never says a word.

One day he passes them by, walking away from Mainal, and he has Yune with him, and his eyes are perhaps less furious than they had been.

Zelgius dies some sixty years after Ashera woke, and Sephiran leaves his home where the herons no longer sing.

Ashera does not smile to see him, does not comment on those things she has not seen, but she grants his wish.

He sleeps in silence, and perhaps that is all he deserves.


End file.
